Video: Big Block C3 Time Lapse Tear Down

As we all know, disassembling a car is the easier part of a build. Putting it back together is a whole other story. It’s crucial to document every stage of the breakdown and tag and bag the myriad of parts and pieces. These videos of a C3 resto skip that critical part and leverage the wonders of time lapse photography to reduce this tear down to its no-frills essence. Watching a former KGB agent dismantle a 1968 Corvette all by himself with no documentation is fantastic and scary all at the same time.

A face that’s launched thousands of automotive love affairs.

Big Block Tri-Power.

Okay,we don’t know he’s a former KGB agent but based on his uncanny resemblance to Boris Yeltsin we have our suspicions. What is crystal clear though is the size of cojones this guy has by breaking this Corvette down with just a few wrenches and his bare hands.

They might have bagged the bits and pieces off camera, but the only thing we see is a growing pile of parts at the rear of the well-lit and tidy shop.

The subject car is a California 1968 big block, Tri-Power ‘vert that has arguably seen a hard life. The video begins with some cool pans of the mud-strafed flanks and engine compartment. From there, cue the power chord thrash rock and our wrench “Boris” begins.

He breaks this old roadster down, and when he’s finished the body’s off and he has the front clip removed as well. Most C2/C3 Corvettes have rust where the A-pillars meet the cowl, and our “Jack of all trades” wrench wastes no time grinding and welding the base of the C3’s birdcage.

The most interesting bit about these videos is the confirmation that 1953-1982 Corvettes are essentially the world’s first mass produced “kit cars” and seeing a C3 reduced to pieces on a shop floor reinforces that notion. A plastic body bolted on a big old frame designed to support hi-po Rat motors, these Vettes are pure, simple and relatively easy cars to restore.

Even with this simplicity, you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Some folks think of restoration as “destruction,” wiping away long dead St. Louis assembly line workers’ craftsmanship forever. Certainly the values of unrestored Corvettes would support that theory. Purchasing a “restored” Corvette would require just as much documentation as an original car to find out whether you were buying an amateur restoration or one from a reputable shop.

Whether to restore, modify or leave alone is an never ending debate in the Corvette hobby and one that won’t be solved anytime soon, so for now, enjoy the vids and watch a C3 go from a complete car to pieces in just under 5 minutes.